How does business performance measurement perform? An empirical study with reference to leading companies in India

Abstract

With increased adoption and resource spent for business performance management, it is interesting to inquire about its practice and performance. Based on the response from CFO's of the 38 leading Indian companies, we found that BPM is satisfying tactical purposes well, but lagged in strategic, top management and learning and development needs. The results compare well with Tonge et al. (2000), Malcolm (2006), Wiersma (2009), etc. When compared with Simmons (1995b) levers of control, we observe better performance on diagnosis and belief control system, while lagged as interactive control tool. Despite increasing use and importance of various non-financial measures, we observed lower satisfaction with its measurement quality and fewer linked those measures to compensation, comparable with Lingle and Schiemann (1996). Our findings are symptomatic of evolution of BPM to overcome the inadequacies of reliance on accounting-based performance measurement (RAPM) to strategic management system and more recently management learning and development tool.